Skywatchers around the world have witnessed the longest "blood moon" eclipse of the 21st Century.

As it rose, during this total eclipse, Earth's natural satellite turned a striking shade of red or ruddy brown.

The "totality" period, where light from the Moon was totally obscured, lasted for one hour, 43 minutes.

At least part of the eclipse was visible from Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Australia, most of Asia and South America.

"This is actually almost as long as a lunar eclipse could be," Prof Tim O'Brien, an astrophysicist at University of Manchester, explained.

It coincided not only with Mars's close approach, but with what he described as a "procession of planets" - a line-up of our celestial neighbours that gave skywatchers a particularly good view of Venus, Jupiter, Saturn and Mars.

I wonder if the rare lack of sunlight on the moon, produces some structural changes from the change in radiant heat on the surface. Also I wonder if there are temperature measurements to show how much change is effected.

Space can cool things off a lot when the heat source is removed for a few hours like that. Without any atmosphere no storms will be seen